Narcissistic!Snape (was: Whither Snape?) [long!]

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 127465


Nora:
I find it absolutely overpoweringly ironic that Snape is furious at
Dumbledore for believing Black's story, when Snape himself is on a
second chance (and has most likely done worse things in the past than
Black ever did; having been a DE at all is a minimum of aiding and
abetting to murder).  

Pippin:
The situations are entirely different. Sirius is not an admitted
DE asking for a second chance. He's maintaining his innocence.
Dumbledore himself says that Snape's version of events is far
more convincing than Harry's. It is *not* illogical for Snape
to continue to believe that Sirius is guilty.

What Snape thinks Sirius did as a youth  would be consistent with
Sirius as a sociopath. Not that I think he is, but the question is
relevant to whether Sirius should be believed, since a sociopath 
could be lying without any sign of guilt.

For Snape to have allowed Hermione to continue would not have 
helped Sirius. Dumbledore himself says that no one would believe
her; he himself cuts her off. Hermione could only succeed in
incriminating herself --  and there are those close to Fudge
who would be only to happy to see her expelled. 

Snape does not know, when he leaves the room, that
Dumbledore has decided to believe Sirius. Even Harry
and Hermione don't know that --they launch a desperate,
breathless effort to convince him, after all.

Snape still does not know that Dumbledore has decided he 
can believe Sirius when he later speaks to Fudge. And he
still does not know it when he launches into his 
rant about Harry helping Sirius to escape.

Now, since we don't know how much Snape knows about
the Time Turner, or what he really saw by the lake 
(his account is inconsistent with what Harry 
remembers) or how much he could sense from Harry or
Hermione's minds, we don't know whether his suspicion
of Harry was rational or not. But we do know that
Dumbledore believes it is, because he tells Fudge
that Snape is not unbalanced.

Since Snape still thinks at this point that Sirius
is a terrorist conspirator, his anger about the
escape is not irrational either. 

If Snape is a metaphor for the way people react to
personality disorders, it might make sense for Rowling
to give him some outre behaviors without having
any specific diagnosis in mind, in order to make a
more general point than she was with a character like
Lockhart. Such as  that it's easy to assume
such people are being irrational when they are not.

JKR might also be trying to get across  that people can be
incapable of stopping themselves from lesser evils
while still being staunchly opposed to greater ones.
Snape's not the only example in the order, just the one
whose behavior is the biggest problem for Harry. 

It would be a lot to ask for Harry to trust Snape in
spite of the way Snape treats him. But if Harry *did*
trust Snape, the way Snape treats him would not, I 
submit, be such a problem. Harry would just say to 
himself, "Oh, there he goes again."

Pippin